Caustics of pseudo-spherical surfaces in the Euclidean 3-space (Q6177645)

The author studies geometric properties of caustics of pseudo-spherical surfaces, that is, surfaces with constant negative Gaussian curvature \(-1\) in the Euclidean \(3\)-space \(\mathbb R^3\). First, he recalls some properties of fronts and their singularities, the notion of sine-Gordon equation which determines pseudo-spherical surfaces, discusses the notion of moving frames and frame equation, singularities of pseudo-spherical fronts and singularities of caustics of such fronts, Gaussian curvature and mean curvature of the caustics and so on. Among other things, he characterizes singularities of pseudo-spherical fronts and their caustics and also obtains explicit descriptions for the Gaussian and mean curvature in terms of the solution of the sine-Gordon equation under certain conditions. Above all, the author formulates a specific condition under which caustics of pseudo-spherical fronts become minimal surfaces, and then identifies a class of such pseudo-spherical fronts. In conclusion, he demonstrates an isometric deformation from the catenoid to the helicoid via a family of caustics of Dini surfaces with certain parameterizations using a series of nice pictures (cf. [\textit{C.-L. Terng} and \textit{K. Uhlenbeck}, Notices Am. Math. Soc. 47, No. 1, 17--25 (2000; Zbl 0987.37072)], [\textit{M. Takahashi} and \textit{K. Teramoto}, Bull. Braz. Math. Soc. (N.S.) 51, No. 4, 887--914 (2020; Zbl 1475.57041)]).